Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/164

 however, astonished at ‘the very refined taste’ as well as ‘the extraordinary talent’ shown in her attitudes (ib. ii. 365). Hamilton commissioned the German artist, Rehberg, to commit a selection of the ‘attitudes’ to paper; these were afterwards published, under the title of ‘Drawings faithfully copied from Nature at Naples, and with permission dedicated to the Right Honourable Sir William Hamilton’ (1794).

The favour of Maria Carolina, won probably by Emma's beauty and unaffected good-humour, was continued with a distinctly political object. The queen was a keen and intelligent politician, and her horror of the revolution in France culminated on the execution of her sister, Marie Antoinette. Her hatred of the French was bitter beyond expression, and she looked for her best support to England. But she was surrounded with spies, and correspondence with the English ambassador was difficult. Her ostentatious friendship with the ambassador's wife rendered it easy. Billets addressed to Lady Hamilton excited no suspicions. Thus there sprang up a remarkable correspondence now preserved in the British Museum (Egerton MSS. 1615–19) and the Public Record Office. Some imperfect selections have been published in Italy and France, which, wanting the key of the official despatches, are crude and frequently mysterious. On the continent it has been believed that Lady Hamilton was a ‘spy of Pitt,’ whose function was to simulate a friendship with the queen, and worm herself into the queen's confidence, in order to obtain secret intelligence (GAGNIèRE, p. 30). No intrigue was required, for the queen gained by her intimacy precisely the weapon which she needed. Lady Hamilton's vanity led her to exaggerate enormously her share in various transactions of which she became cognisant, and to put forward imaginary claims upon her country.

Nelson sanctions one of her best known claims in the last codicil to his will. ‘She obtained,’ he says, ‘the king of Spain's letter in 1796 to his brother, the king of Naples, acquainting him of his intention to declare war against England, from which letter the ministry sent out orders to then (sic) Sir John Jervis to strike a stroke if opportunity offered against either the arsenals of Spain or her fleets’ (, vii. 140). Lady Hamilton herself, in a memorial to the king in 1813, says that she ‘obtained the king of Spain's letter to the king of Naples, expressive of his intention to declare war against England. This important document your Majesty's memorialist delivered to her husband, Sir William Hamilton, who immediately transmitted it to your Majesty's Ministers’ (, ii. 632). It would appear, however, that in familiar conversation her claim went far beyond this. Several different versions have been given of it (e.g. Memoirs, p. 149); but Lady Hamilton's own statement, formally drawn up and signed, is that her husband being dangerously ill, she prevailed on the queen to permit her to take a copy of the letter, and spent 400l. from her private purse to secure its safe transmission to Lord Grenville (, Queen of Naples, ii. 307). The Hamilton correspondence in the Public Record Office (Sicily, vol. xli.) shows that the whole story is based only on the fact that some letters relating to the turn of affairs in Spain in 1795 were sent to Hamilton by the queen, under cover, as usual, to Lady Hamilton; others were given to him by the queen direct; but there is, throughout, no hint at any intention of declaring war with England, though a letter from Galatone (the Neapolitan minister at Madrid) of 30 March shows that the Spanish government thought it probable that England might declare war against Spain. This letter, which did little more than confirm direct intelligence to the government from Spain, was sent to Hamilton by the queen on 28 April, with a request that it might be returned at once. Hamilton, in returning it, desired his wife to ask the queen for a copy of it, and this she sent him the following day, 29 April. Hamilton was then just convalescent after a serious illness, and sent a despatch, with the correspondence in question, to the English government, taking great precautions for secrecy. The queen's letter to Lady Hamilton of 28 April (, p. 153;, ii. 610; the holograph letter in Sicily, vol. xli., is not dated; the date is given by Hamilton in his despatch) is sufficient to show the measure of the part Lady Hamilton had in the business.

Another very well known allegation, also approved by Nelson in his last codicil, is that by her influence with the queen she obtained an order for the governor of Syracuse to permit the British fleet to water there in July 1798, without which order the fleet would have had to go back to Gibraltar. The statement itself is wonderful, but still more so is Nelson's endorsement of it, for he at least knew perfectly well, first, that, even under the terms of the treaty with France, the delay in watering would not have extended over more than three or four days; secondly, that he had strict orders from Lord St. Vincent to take by force, in case of refusal, whatever he needed (, iii. 26); and thirdly, that he actually did water at Syracuse by virtue